Verno wrote on Apr 9, 2012, 10:30:
Had a chance to go through ME3 again over the weekend, some thoughts on both the game and the ending:
- Kai Leng was terrible. The plot armor alone was shitty, let alone the slanty eyed goggles and poor characterization. People say hes better in the books but well, he should stay in the books then.
- Starchild was not adequately foreshadowed at all despite Yifes protests to the contrary. In fact he only really makes sense in the context of the indoctrination theory which is kind of hilarious.
- To protect organics from synthetics we made a bunch of synthetics to kill organics. Nuff said.
The whole ending sequence is poorly implemented, paced and edited. Examples below:
- Why is there a beam taking the player to the most vulnerable point in the citadel?
- Why are so few forces guarding the actual beam?
- Why doesn't Harbinger murder everyone when it has the chance? Where does it magically disappear to afterward?
- Why doesn't Coates see Anderson and Shepard?
- Where does the rest of your team disappear to when this happens?
- Why is the room in the Citadel unguarded?
- How does Anderson reach the control room before Shepard? There is literally only a single path into the room.
- How are Shepard and Anderson being controlled when this ability is previously unseen without months of indoctrination or at least biotics?
- How does Joker magically teleport the Normandy to a mass relay?
I could go on but the point is that the ending has major holes and problems. "I think the ending is fine because its an ending" isn't really an answer either. It poorly incorporates all previous player choice and railroads you into a single rushed and poorly edited sequence. In fact most of the choices you make in the game itself don't even matter, it's all about your arbitrary EMS. Many of the player choices are only acknowledged in a single line and quite a few don't even appear in the cutscenes. It's a shame because the game was otherwise fantastic.
It's bad, isn't it?
The internal inconsistencies are staggering! The Extended Cut announcement left me cold. I would like to see BioWare try bringing the science back to the fiction, after that clusterfuck of an ending. I'd also like to see them try bringing closure. What, will they show Tali choking in her own vomit as she's dying in extreme agony from the infections of trying to eat the unsterilized food from a planet that probably isn't dextro-based? Or will we see Liara make blue babies with Garrus in an attempt to populate that planet? HOW can BioWare possibly add to the abysmal nightmare that is this narrative coherence breaking hellhole of an ending!?
Funny enough, the only way they could've justified the internal inconsistencies of the universe they created, was through the use of the Indoctrination Theory.
Mark my words: The EC will only piss most people off even more. And rightly so.
Bioware isn't the company they used to be. If you've seen the hubris, arrogance and condescending behaviour displayed by their PAX panel... you can only agree with that statement, I think.